State's Budget Blues

Plans for the state's two-year budget have House Republicans working overtime. In meetings this weekend, some Republican lawmakers are trying to reach a consensus on unresolved issues such as whether to fold the House's Tax Reform package into the budget bill. But Republican lawmakers say it's liekly that the entire tax reform bill won't be part of the budget bill. However, they say proposals to include a temproary one-cent sales tax increase and broaden the sales tax include other service still could be rolled into the final House bill. Govenor Taft's 49-billion-dollar proposal for the two-year budget includes an overhaul to the tax system that would raise 2.3-billion-dollars in new revenue over the biennium. The House did not include in its version of the budget its tax plan. It would bring in only a fraction of the money House members say is needed to balance the budget.